Gapless phases in ground states of low-dimensional quantum spin systems are rather ubiquitous. Their peculiarity is a remarkable sensitivity to external perturbations due to permanent criticality of such phases manifested by a slow (power-low) decay of pair correlations and the divergence of the corresponding susceptibility. A strong influence of various defects on the properties of the system in such a phase can then be expected. Here, we consider the influence of vacancies on the thermodynamics of the simplest quantum model with a gapless phase, the isotropic spin-1/2 XX chain. The existence of the exact solution of this model gives a unique opportunity to describe in detail the dramatic effect of dilution on the gapless phase—the appearance of an infinite series of quantum phase transitions resulting from level crossing under the variation of a longitudinal magnetic field. We calculate the jumps in the field dependences of the ground-state longitudinal magnetization, susceptibility, entropy, and specific heat appearing at these transitions and show that they result in a highly nonlinear temperature dependence of these parameters at low T. Also, the effect of enhancement of the magnetization and longitudinal correlations in the dilute chain is established. The changes of the pair spin correlators under dilution are also analyzed. The universality of the mechanism of the quantum transition generation suggests that similar effects of dilution can also be expected in gapless phases of other low-dimensional quantum spin systems.
We present the results of our analytical and numerical study of quantum stationary states and the thermodynamics of exactly solvable finite linear spin-1/2 XX chain with one or two distorted links. The exact dispersion equations for the stationary states with one inverted spin for both cases have been derived. The corresponding spectrum consists of one quasi-continuous band and some localized impurity levels. The analytical inequalities for the values of the critical model parameters describing the appearance of local energy impurity levels above and below quasi-continuous band are obtained and analyzed. The field and the temperature dependences of the main thermodynamic characteristics of these models are studied. It is shown, that the appearance of the localized levels near the distorted links may effect significantly on the thermodynamic properties at low temperatures, leading to the additional singularities in the field and the temperature dependences of the principal thermodynamic characteristics. For example, the field dependence of z-projection of average total spin and the field dependence of the magnetization at zero temperature have the finite jumps associated with the quasi-continuous spectrum, and the impurity levels. The remnants of these jumps at rather low temperature are clearly visible. The average z-projections of the spins of distorted link(s) may decrease with the increasing of the magnetic field for some values of model parameters. The temperature dependence of the specific heat may demonstrate additional maxima at very low temperatures. The complex oscillatory pattern of the time dependence of the dynamical longitudinal pair correlation function and the autocorrelation function is associated with the finiteness of the models and the appearance of associated localized energy levels.
Using the Jordan-Wigner transformation we calculate exactly the ground state and low-temperature thermodynamic properties of the spin
S=1/2 isotropic
XX chain with four spin interaction. In terms of the equivalent spinless fermion (SF) representation the system is viewed as a lattice fermion gas with nearest-neighbor (
J) and next-next-next-neighbor (
J∗/4) hopping. It is shown that with the increase of four spin coupling, at
Jc∗=4J/3 the system experiences the Lifshitz type topological phase transition characterized by the tripling of Fermi points. The quantum phase transition (QPT) point marks transition from a gapless spin-liquid phase of standard
XX chain into again a gapless spin-liquid phase with different character of power-low decay of spin correlations. At the transition point the free fermion dispersion relation shows flattering at Fermi points, what determines singular character of density of states
ρ(ω)∼(ω/J)−2/3 and as a consequence unconventional temperature dependence of heat capacity of the system
C∼(T/J∗)1/3, and singular magnetic susceptibility of the system
χ(H)∼(H/J∗)−2/3. In the case of alternating magnetic field the system is characterized by the rich ground state phase diagram which contains fully polarized (ferromagnetic), gapped antiferromagnetic (AFM) and spin liquid phases. At the transition point from the gapped AFM phase into the gapless polarized spin liquid phase the system shows rapid increase of magnetization
m∼(H−Hc)1/6 and magnetic susceptibility a singular behavior as
χ(H)∼(H−Hc)−5/6.
The quantum criticality and thermodynamics for the trimerized spin-1/2 isotropic XY chain with three-spin interactions in an external magnetic field are investigated by means of the Green's function theory combined with Jordan–Wigner transformation. The ground-state phase diagrams are explored, in which various phases are identified and described by typical M–h curves. Therein, two cusps emerge for strong three-spin interactions in two gapless phases at low and high fields, respectively. Moreover, the spin correlations and two-site entanglement entropy are calculated for a further understanding of quantum phase transition (QPT). It is also found that the magnetic-field-driven quantum criticality is closely related to the energy spectrum, in which an energy gap responsible for the appearance of 1/3 magnetization plateau can be opened up by three-spin interactions. The critical behavior disappears when the temperature becomes nonzero, yielding only a crossover behavior. In addition, the gapped low-lying excitations are responsible for the observed thermodynamic behaviors, wherein a structure with three peaks in the temperature dependence of specific heat is unveiled.
In contrast to strongly frustrated classical systems, their quantum counterparts typically have a non-degenerate ground state. A counterexample is the celebrated Heisenberg sawtooth spin chain with ferromagnetic zigzag bonds
J1 and competing antiferromagnetic basal bonds
J2. At a quantum phase transition point
∣J2/J1∣=1/2, this model exhibits a flat one-magnon excitation band leading to a massively degenerate ground-state manifold which results in a large residual entropy. Thus, for the spin-half model, the residual entropy amounts to exactly one half of its maximum value
limT→∞S(T)/N=ln2. In the present paper we study in detail the role of the spin quantum number
s and the magnetic field
H in the parameter region around the transition (flat-band) point. For that we use full exact diagonalization up to
N=20 lattice sites and the finite-temperature Lanczos method up to
N=36 sites to calculate the density of states as well as the temperature dependence of the specific heat, the entropy and the susceptibility. The study of chain lengths up to
N=36 allows a careful finite-size analysis. At the flat-band point we find extremely small finite-size effects for spin
s=1/2, i.e., the numerical data virtually correspond to the thermodynamic limit. In all other cases the finite-size effects are still small and become visible at very low temperatures. In a sizeable parameter region around the flat-band point the former massively degenerate ground-state manifold acts as a large manifold of low-lying excitations leading to extraordinary thermodynamic properties at the transition point as well as in its vicinity such as an additional low-temperature maximum in the specific heat. Moreover, there is a very strong influence of the magnetic field on the low-temperature thermodynamics including an enhanced magnetocaloric effect.
The systems exhibiting quantum phase transitions (QPT) are investigated within the Ising model in the transverse field and Heisenberg model with easy-plane single-site anisotropy. Near QPT a correspondence between parameters of these models and of the quantum ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{4}$ model is established. A scaling analysis is performed for the ground-state properties. The influence of the external ``longitudinal'' magnetic field on the ground-state properties is investigated, and the corresponding magnetic susceptibility is calculated. Finite-temperature properties are considered with the use of the scaling analysis for the effective classical model proposed by Sachdev. Analytical results for the ordering temperature and temperature dependences of the magnetization and energy gap are obtained in the case of a small ground-state moment. The forms of dependences of observable quantities on the bare splitting (or magnetic field) and renormalized splitting turn out to be different. A comparison with numerical calculations and experimental data on systems demonstrating magnetic and structural transitions (e.g., into a singlet state) is performed.